New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spent most of the past year being contrasted with another brash New Yorker, former President Donald Trump. Now he is channeling Trumpian levels of defiance in an attempt to weather the sexual harassment scandals engulfing his administration.
Six women have come forward to accuse Cuomo of various inappropriate comments and behavior. Leaders of his own party at the statehouse in Albany have called on the three-term Democrat and son of a liberal icon to step down, a move Cuomo has rejected as “anti-democratic.”
“They don’t override the people’s will. They don’t get to override elections,” Cuomo told reporters. “I was elected by the people of New York State. I wasn’t elected by politicians.”
This time last year, Cuomo was being hailed for his leadership on the pandemic while Trump was panned. U.S. News and World Report said that the coronavirus made Cuomo “America’s governor.” The Los Angeles Times said Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat, had to “fill in Trump’s leadership vacuum.” The Independent called him “President Cuomo” and said he “emerged as a leader in the coronavirus pandemic while Trump fumbled.” Market Watch described Cuomo and Anthony Fauci as “America’s de facto leaders” during the outbreak.
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Now, Cuomo is relying on Trump’s tactic of blustering his way through a scandal in hopes that the news cycle, and the public’s attention, will move on to something else. For Trump, it usually did. But unlike the ex-president, or his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton, the party is not closing ranks behind Cuomo.
“Every day, there is another account that is drawing away from the business of government,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement. “New York is still in the midst of this pandemic and is still facing the societal, health, and economic impacts of it. We need a governor without daily distraction. For the good of the state, Gov. Cuomo must resign.”
“There is no way I resign,” Cuomo declared at a press conference. He reportedly told Stewart-Cousins the state legislature would have to impeach him if they wanted him out of office over the allegations, currently being investigated by a team appointed by the state attorney general.
This has invited less-flattering comparisons with Trump. A Guardian columnist called Cuomo a “mini-Trump” who shared the ex-president’s “authoritarianism.” The New Republic even published an article saying Trump helped Cuomo get away with his pandemic failures. “He was portrayed as a success, in large part because he was treated as Donald Trump’s foil in the media,” Alex Shephard wrote. “Now, without Trump around, his handling of Covid-19 is belatedly seen in a different light.”
In addition to the sexual harassment charges, Cuomo is under scrutiny for housing coronavirus patients in nursing homes and then undercounting the resulting deaths.
Trump was twice impeached by the House but was acquitted by the Senate both times. He faced allegations of sexual misconduct, but they never seriously threatened his presidency. He denied every claim, some quashed by his longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen before he took office.
Democrats have argued that the GOP’s failure to turn against Trump, and the fact that the party mostly, though not entirely, stood behind 2017 Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, gives them the #MeToo moral high ground. But in every case where Democrats turned on one of their elected officials who faced accusations from women, the party was virtually certain to retain power.
All three Democratic statewide elected officials in Virginia remained in office despite scandals, in the lieutenant governor’s case, an allegation of rape, by following Trump’s playbook of waiting for the public to turn its attention to other things.
A Quinnipiac poll earlier this month found only 40% of New Yorkers believed Cuomo should resign, while 55% said he should remain in office. The latter group included nearly three out of four Democrats. But voters opposed him running for a fourth term, 59% to 36%, and this poll was taken before Democratic leaders started turning on him. His job approval rating is already down 30 points from a year ago.
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“The calls on him to resign from the Democratic leadership in the state legislature will make it difficult for him to stay in office,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. “At some point in the near future, he'll find a graceful way to leave office so he doesn't further tarnish the Cuomo name.” Cuomo’s father Mario was also a three-term governor of New York.
But for now, Cuomo isn’t budging, telling reporters Sunday: “I’m not going to be distracted because there is too much to do for the people."
